No. Google and Meta link what you do to your account, not just to your IP address. The activity settings in your account do more, and cost nothing.
What solves it instead
- In your Google Account, switch off Web & App Activity or delete what is saved; the Google page under Sources shows where.
- In Facebook's Accounts Centre, review your activity off Meta technologies and disconnect it from your account.
- Log out, or use a separate browser for these services, so that fewer visits to other sites are tied to your login.
The facts
| About | Word for word from the source | Source, checked on |
|---|---|---|
| What Google saves to your account | Web & App Activity saves your searches and activity from other Google services in your Google Account. | support.google.com, |
| Google, when you are signed out | Your search and ad results may be customized using search-related activity even if you're signed out. | support.google.com, |
| What other sites and apps send to Meta | Your activity off Meta technologies is a summary of activity that businesses and organisations share with us about your interactions with them, such as visiting their apps or websites. | facebook.com, |
| How Meta links it to you | This information includes activity that's connected to your Facebook and Instagram accounts. | facebook.com, |
| Your right to object under EU law | Read the literal textWhere personal data are processed for direct marketing purposes, the data subject shall have the right to object at any time to processing of personal data concerning him or her for such marketing, which includes profiling to the extent that it is related to such direct marketing. | eur-lex.europa.eu, |
What a VPN does change
A VPN hides your IP address from Google, Meta and the sites that report to them, and with it your approximate location. Your account, your cookies and the data that sites share stay exactly the same. Check when a VPN is worth paying for
Without a VPN
- Your devicehas a private address that only exists inside your home network
- Your routershares one public address between all devices behind it
- The website
Sees: that public address, and with it your internet provider and roughly where you are.
With a VPN
- Your devicehas a private address that only exists inside your home network
- Your routershares one public address between all devices behind itEncrypted tunnel
- VPN serverrun by the VPN provider
- The website
Sees: the address of the VPN server and the country registered for it, not yours.
What we did not check
2
- How much of the tracking still works when you are logged out and have cleared your cookies.
- Tracking by other advertising networks: the facts about tracking come only from the help pages of Google and Meta.
Next step
- In your Google Account, switch off Web & App Activity or delete what is saved; the Google page under Sources shows where.